User interviews (Part 1) — An introduction
It was a fine morning, I was travelling with my mentor to the client’s office to conduct few user interviews of insurance agents for the project Enterprise Digital Transformation for India’s leading general insurance provider. I was a bit nervous as I was going to do it for the first time. We reached on time and we were invited to an office room where we were going to conduct the interviews. We prepared all the required initial setup and my mentor decided to conduct the interview and I would be acting as the observer. The first agent came and sat in front of us. To my disbelief, the agent was more nervous than me and he was shivering a bit. My mentor was referring to the questionnaire that we had prepared. The first question was “Please tell us about yourself” and I was waiting for my mentor to start with the question. My mentor said, “Namaste sir, kaise ho?” (Hello sir, how are you?) and he replied “Bhadia” (I am good), then my mentor followed with “Aur sab kaise chal raha hai?” and the agent smiled and started “Sab teekh chal raha hai, toh bolo aapko kya chahiye?” (Everything is going good, so tell me what information you want?). They were chatting for a while before they got into the actual conversation. I could witness that the agent became calm and he started giving all the information that we required. The whole process felt like some kind of performance as it sounded very casual but my mentor never deviated from the actual topic. It was evident that my mentor must have done a lot of homework to handle it with such elegance. Later, I got to know that at that point, he had experience of conducting 50+ interviews in his earlier projects and had worked a lot on his communication skills to keep the interviewee engaged through out the interview. This was very much intriguing to me, and I wanted to develop that skill. But, I was a beginner at that point and I actually had to start from scratch. So, I started exploring the basics — “What is user interview?”.
What is user interview?
User interview is a research method used to gain a deeper understanding of users and their needs, behaviours, and motivations. User interviews are an essential part of the user-centered design process, which is focused on creating products or services that meet the needs of users and provide a positive user experience.
In UX design, user interviews are typically conducted as part of the discovery phase, where designers and researchers aim to identify user needs, pain points, and goals. By asking open-ended questions and listening carefully to user responses, designers can gain valuable insights into how users currently interact with a product or service and what improvements can be made to enhance the user experience.
User interviews can be conducted in person, over the phone, or online, and can range in length from a few minutes to several hours. The insights gathered from user interviews are used to inform the design process, such as defining user personas, creating user journeys, and developing prototypes that meet user needs and expectations.
Types of user interviews:
There are several types of user interviews that can be conducted depending on the goals of the research and the type of information being sought. Here are some of the most common types of user interviews:
Structured interviews:
These interviews follow a pre-defined set of questions and are useful for gathering quantitative data. They are helpful when you want to compare responses across different participants.
Semi-structured interviews:
These interviews have a loose structure with open-ended questions that allow participants to expand on their answers. They are useful for exploring complex topics and understanding the user’s point of view.
Unstructured interviews:
These interviews have no pre-defined questions and allow participants to speak freely about their experiences and opinions. They are useful for exploring new topics and generating new ideas.
Contextual interviews:
These interviews are conducted in the user’s natural environment while they are performing tasks related to the product or service. They are useful for observing user behaviour and understanding the context in which the product or service will be used.
Expert interviews:
These interviews are conducted with experts in the field related to the product or service. They are useful for gaining insights into industry trends, best practices, and emerging technologies.
Group interviews:
These interviews involve multiple participants and are useful for generating group dynamics and understanding how users interact with each other.
In conclusion, I got to get a basic introduction about user interviews and what are its types. Also, I learnt that the type of user interview to be conducted depends on the research objectives and the type of information required. It’s important to choose the right type of interview to ensure that the research goals are met and the insights gathered are relevant and actionable.
Now that, I got to know what is user interview and its types, I decided to get into the why and when part of user interviews before getting to know how it works.
User interviews is a four part series in which I have covered various aspects of user interview research method, coupled with some of the experiences I had during the interview processes, under the following topics;
- User interviews (Part 1) — An introduction (Your are at the end of this article)
- User interviews (Part 2) — Why, when and when not!
- User interviews (Part 3) — How to conduct user interviews?
- User interviews (Part 4) — Tools used and artefacts created
